September 2004

Public interest or pocketbook protection

September 18, 2004

The Rocky Mountain News puts forth its arguments for voting against Amendment 36. The proposed amendment in Colorado would make Colorado's election of electors proportional instead of the more common winner-take-all plan of 48 states. Their first argument is that it would reduce Colorado's influence in selecting a president. However they don't disclose their interest in keeping it. The true interest has less to do with what is best for the people of Colorado. The argument is that a candidate won't spend time in a state with a 4-5 difference in electors compared to a state with winner-take-all and 9 electors. What is more to the point for the Rocky Mountain News is that their ad revenue will decrease if the "interest" of the candidates decreases.

Here a huge media company portrays the interest of Colorado voters as it's main point. However it fails to mention that for decades media companies of all sizes have depended on the revenue from elections to provide great profits.

Public interest or pocketbook protection

September 18, 2004

The Rocky Mountain News puts forth its arguments for voting against Amendment 36. The proposed amendment in Colorado would make Colorado's election of electors proportional instead of the more common winner-take-all plan of 48 states. Their first argument is that it would reduce Colorado's influence in selecting a president. However they don't disclose their interest in keeping it. The true interest has less to do with what is best for the people of Colorado. The argument is that a candidate won't spend time in a state with a 4-5 difference in electors compared to a state with winner-take-all and 9 electors. What is more to the point for the Rocky Mountain News is that their ad revenue will decrease if the "interest" of the candidates decreases.

Here a huge media company portrays the interest of Colorado voters as it's main point. However it fails to mention that for decades media companies of all sizes have depended on the revenue from elections to provide great profits.

What's with the maps

September 18, 2004

In the category of things that really don't matter... Watching Real Time with Bill Maher tonight I was puzzled by the map in the background. The map is a map of the United States with cities highlighted on it. Normal enough. For example New Mexico has Albuquerque and Santa Fe, Arizona has Phoenix and Tucson. Colorado has Denver and Utah has Salt Lake City. All pretty normal. Generally large cities and some smaller state capitals. The curiosity is that Nevada has only Carson City and not Las Vegas. Odd.

Fencing in (or out?)

September 18, 2004

Spent a large part of the day putting up fence along the back property line. The new neighbors got the materials and we worked with them to get the posts in and ready to hang the fence tomorrow. Having it up is making it more desirable to get the front done as well. That's all good but I needed to do some computer work this weekend. Also got a lot of updates done to the Sandy Valley page. Perhaps I should get going and set up a community site and see if there aren't some bloggers hiding out in these parts.

Why oh why?

September 16, 2004

Work with a client's email has just gone from the bizare to the sublime. Working with Outlook for Office XP. The client has about 300 MB in messages stored. Since that could be taxing on a laptop with only 512MB I moved the older messages to an archive file. Still not a noticable change in speed. New messages, already in the inbox, take 10-15 seconds to display in the preview pane. However, in testing I found an oddity. By opening and closing Microsoft Outlook the second time it not only starts up much faster but also displays messages with only the tiniest preceptable hesitation.

Oh the choices we have

September 14, 2004

So if we listen to Vice President Cheney then a vote for Kerry means more attacks on the United States. Perhaps he knows because Haliburton is a key financier of terrorist regimes, or perhaps it's mere speculation on his part.

On the other hand Scripting News points out very well today that Bush is mortgaging future generations to Osama bin Laden. I'm reminded of talking with a trust officer friend of ours last spring. He explained that the trust management community had been concerned about what would happen when, with continued prosperity and government surpluses, the treasury stopped issuing script. What would they do without T-Bills? It is a problem that never fully emerged as W (as in Wrong) made sure your children's great-grandchildren will still be paying Uncle Osama back.

Raising kids

September 11, 2004

Matt Raible points out it's actually easier raising kids with no TV.

It was 40 years ago today

September 11, 2004

To paraphrase the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper, it was forty years ago today.... In the late summer of 1964 in the wheatlands of eastern Washington that two very special people came together. It was there, in the living room of my grand parents home that my parents were married. Congratulations on 40 years and here's to 40 more.

Nevada powerless

September 9, 2004

Nevada power treated its rural customers in Sandy Valley to an eight-hour power outage. It remains frustrating that their service is so much less reliable than Valley Electric just a few miles away. Of course it took a half-dozen phone calls and heavy persuasion to convince them to send the bills to the zip code we live in instead of some other zip code they have an unfortunate affinity for.

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